Posted to Ben Swann
By Barry Donegan
June 9, 2014
By In the race for Florida’s 13th congressional district, an unusual set of circumstances has elevated a third-party candidate from the role of a spoiler to that of a serious challenger. According to a telephone poll of 1121 likely voters conducted by StPetePolls, Libertarian Party candidate Lucas Overby is polling at an astonishing 31% in his race against incumbent Republican Congressman David Jolly. Overby is currently trailing Representative Jolly by 17%.
Democratic candidate Ed Jany dropped out of the race, making the CD-13 congressional contest a two-way affair between Republican Representative Jolly and his Libertarian Party challenger. During a previous special election, Lucas Overby demonstrated his fundraising chops with an impressive one-weekend, $10,000+ donation drive. Florida’s 13th congressional district is considered a possible swing seat. Though Republicans have held the seat in recent years, Barack Obama took the majority of the votes in the district in the 2012 presidential campaign, showing signs of a strong Democratic presence.
Noting the vacuum created by the absence of a Democratic challenger in the race, Overby has been reaching out to disaffected Democrats. According to the above-linked StPetePolls survey, his strategy has been working, as 43% of Democrats polled expressed their support for the Libertarian alternative. The Overby campaign hopes to secure the votes of more Democrats, independents, and disaffected Republicans by climbing further in the polls and demonstrating viability as a challenger against Jolly.
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What everone else said 🙂
I am happy and proud to be voting for Lucas Overby in November. Our time has come.
This is big news. Libertarians around the country ought to support this candidate.
He should put up some attention getting billboards. There is going to be a Medical Marijuana initiative on the ballot in Florida this November. Polls indicate that it is going to pass. Lucas Overby ought to take advantage of this by pushing marijuana legalization. He should put up billboards that have a picture of a pot leaf on it with the words, “LEGALIZE, ELECT LIBERATARIAN LUCAS OVERBY” in bold letter over the pot leaf. I guarantee that this would get a lot of attention.
He should also do a voter registration drive and get out the vote drive, since a lot of the people who would vote for him are not registered to vote. These things, as well as a door-to-door canvassing effort would help bump up his vote total.
Very nice! Here’s hoping his campaign continues to gain traction.